Best Opening/Closing Tracks

Death Cab for Cutie's Title Track came on shuffle today, and I got to thinking about great opening songs. What are some of your favorite opening tracks? I figured I'd tac closing tracks here too since the discussion is in the same vein.

 

Ziggy Stardust has a great opener/closer duo. I'd say the same for London calling, MBDTF, Mt. Eerie, Captain Fantastic off the top of my head.

 

Some personal stand out favorites for openers:

Chevelle - Family System
Silversun Pickups - There's No Secrets This Year
Alexisonfire - Accidents
Circa Survive - Living Together
Opeth - Ghost of Perdition
Reliant K - Plead The Fifth/Come Right Out and Say It
Deftones- Feiticeira

 

I posted my closers in this thread: Favorite Closing Song on an Album • forum.chorus.fm

I'll have to go through my itunes library for openers, but Superman's Dead by Our Lady Peace is up there

 

Favorite openers:

The Cure- Plainsong
American Football- Never Meant
Bon Iver- Perth
Brand New- Sowing Season
Bruce Springsteen- Thunder Road
Converge- Dark Horse
Counting Crows- Round Here
The Dangerous Summer- Catholic Girls
Deftones- Hexagram
Death Cab For Cutie- New Year
Every Time I Die- Romeo A Go Go
Fall Out Boy- Disloyal Order Of Water Buffaloes
Fun- Be Calm
The Gaslight Anthem- Great Expectations
The Hotelier- An Introduction To The Album
Jimmy Eat World- Table For Glasses
Kanye West- Say You Will
Manchester Orchestra- Wolves At Night
The Menzingers- Good Things
MewithoutYou- Messes Of Men
Mineral- lovelettertypewriter
Minus The Bear- Burying Luck
Motion City Soundtrack- Worker Bee
Moving Mountains- Aphelion
My Chemical Romance- Helena
The National- Secret Meeting
Pedro The Lion- Options
Pianos Become The Teeth- Ripple Water Shine
Sleater Kinney- The Fox
Taking Back Sunday- Set Phasers To Stun
Thrice- Kill Me Quickly
Thursday- For The Workforce, Drowning
Titus Andronicus- A More Perfect Union
The Weakerthans- Everything Must Go!
Weezer- Tired Of Sex

ill edit in my closers after work tomorrow

 

All of the ones listed I've heard are great answers. I'll have to look into some of the bands I've been sleeping on for awhile. Haha

Some of my favorite opening songs are: (if an artist has multiple devided with a "/")
Aaron Sprinkle - Heatstroke
Brand New - Sowing Season/Vices
Brandon Flowers - Dreams Come True
Circa Survive - Holding Someone's Hair Back/Living Together/Strange Terrain/Birth of the Economic Hitman/Schema
Copeland - No One Really Wins/Where's My Head/Should You Return/Have I Always Loves You
Dance Gavin Dance - We Own the Night
David Bowie - Sunday/Blackstar
The Dear Hunter - Don't Let Me Bring You Down
Death Cab For Cutie - Bend to Squares/Title Track/Stedier Footing/New Year/Marching Bands of Manhattan/Bixby Canyon Bridge/No Room In Frame
Eisley - The Valley
Emery - Cutthroat Collapse
Fair - Disappearing World
I the Mighty - Speak to Me
Jimmy Eat World - Heart is Hard to Find/Appreciation
Kevin Devine - Ballgame/Cotton Crush/Off-Screen
Lydia - This is Twice Now
mewithoutYou - Torches Together/Messes of Men/February, 1878
Of Monsters and Men - Dirty Paws/Crystals
Panic! At the Disco - This is Gospel
Passion Pit - Lifted Up (1985)
Petal - Camera Lens
Relient k - The One I'm Waiting For/Forget and Not Slow Down
Saves the Day - Head For the Hills/Daybreak/Remember
Say Anything - Belt/Skinny, Mean Man/John Mcclane
Secret & Whisper - Youth Cats
Switchfoot - Needle and Haystack Life

That's a long list. And some bands I obviously think are just really really good at starting am album off.haha

 

I feel like my closers list would be longer even, I think more bands get how to end an album than how to start one.

 

Some of my favorite openers:
Alkaline Trio - Time To Waste
The Ataris - So Long, Astoria
Bayside - Big Cheese
Billy Talent - Devil In A Midnight Mass
Blink-182 - Feeling This
Boston - More Than A Feeling
Emery - Cutthroat Collapse
Filter - Hey Man Nice Shot
Filter - You Walk Away
Filter - We Hate It When You Get What You Want
Foo Fighters - Bridge Burning
Foo Fighters - All My Life
Four Year Strong - It Must Really Suck To Be Four Year Strong Right Now
Gatsby's American Dream - Theatre
Goo Goo Dolls - Dizzy
Incubus - Megalomaniac
Incubus - Privilege
Ivoryline - Day's End
Joe Satriani - Unstoppable Momentum
Jimmy Eat World - Futures
Journey - Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)
Korn - Here To Stay
Led Zeppelin - Achiles' Last Stand
Mastodon - Oblivion
Matchbook Romance - You Can Run, But We'll Find You
Meshuggah - I Am Colossus
Motion City Soundtrack - Circuits And Wires
Motion City Soundtrack - Fell In Love Without You
Muse - Uprising
Nirvana - Smells Like Teen Spirit
Poison The Well - Ghostchant
Porcupine Tree - Blackest Eyes
Porcupine Tree - Deadwing
Porcupine Tree - Fear Of A Blank Planet
Protest The Hero - Clarity
Rush - The Spirit Of Radio
Rush - Subdivisions
Saosin - It's Far Better To Learn
Third Eye Blind - Faster
Tool - Vicarious
Underoath - In Regards To Myself
Yellowcard - The Sound Of You And Me
+44 - Lycanthrope

 

We Own the Night by DGD, Helena by MCR, Vicarious by Tool and This is Gospel by P!ATD were already mentioned but I wanna second those opinions. Here are my favorites.

Attention - the Academy Is
About a Girl - the Academy Is
Drain the blood - distillers
Grind - Alice in chains
She loves me so - Anthony green
Thought it was a drought- future
Our lawyer made us change the name of this song - fall out boy
Thriller - fall out boy
The queen and I- gym class heroes
Plague - crystal castles
Break on through to the other side - the doors
Hello I love you - the doors
American idiot - green day
Honey this mirror isn't big enough - my chemical romance
Victorious - panic! at the Disco
Everything in its right place - radiohead

Honorable mention: we're so starving - panic! at the disco. Memorable but also weird and unnecessary.

 

Gonna try and limit myself to ten of each, might double up on some artists just because they're that fucking good.

Openers:
My Chemical Romance - Helena
Fightstar - To Sleep/Grand Unification Pt 1
Kamelot - Prologue/Center of the Universe
The Birthday Massacre - Kill the Lights
fun. - Be Calm
Frou Frou - Let Go
The Used - Maybe Memories
Infinity Crush - Tiny Souls in My Eyelashes
American Football - Never Meant
Chad Perrone - Blinded

Closers:
My Chemical Romance - I Never Told You What I Do for a Living and Demolition Lovers
Motion City Soundtrack - Even if It Kills Me and Hold Me Down
Radiohead - Motion Picture Soundtrack
La Dispute - You and I in Unison
Chad Perrone - Keep Us Around
The Used - Pieces Mended
The Hotelier - Dendron
Charlie Simpson - Riverbanks and Lost
Imogen Heap - Half Life
The Early November - Call off the Bells

Really hard to leave some stuff off here but if I didn't limit myself it would have gone on forever. I probably missed something but I think these are my favourites.

 

Listening to those now and I love them all so much. I think I prefer the closers though, ha.

 

@SpyKi had I not checked this thread I would not have realized I have been listening to Kid A in alphabetical order for a solid 6-7 years now haha. Thank you

 

what the fuck, haha. I can not imagine listening to that album of all albums out of order.

 

Yeah it's an egregious oversight all things considered. Maybe they were onto something with A Moon Shaped Pool's track listing.

FWIW "Everything in its Right Place" works quite well as an opener

 

My Name is Jonas

 

I totally spaced and forgot to add my closers

Jimmy Eat World- Goodbye Sky Harbor, Dizzy, 23
The Cure- Untitled
Arctic Monkeys- A Certain Romance
Against Me- Black Me Out
Manchester Orchestra- Colly Strings
Cursive- The Night I Lost The Will To Fight
Coheed & Cambria- God Send Conspirator
The Dangerous Summer- Never Feel Alone
Death Cab For Cutie- A Lack Of Color
Deftones- What Happened To You?
The Format- If Work Permits
Fun- Stars
The Gaslight Anthem- The Backseat
Gatsbys American Dream- Counterfeit Language
The Hotelier- Dendron
mewithoutYou- In A Sweater, Poorly Knit
Mineral- Parking Lot
Motion City Soundtrack- Even If It Kills Me, Hold Me Down, The Weakends
My Chemical Romance- Famous Last Words
The National- Mr November, Gospel, Vanderlyle Crybaby Geeks
Thrice- The Beltsville Crucible
Thursday- You Were The Cancer
The Weakerthans- Slips & Tangles

 

I needa get around to looking at closing songs, but I got super busy the past few days. Hardly slept even. A Sweater Poorly Knit is definitely on there though, weirdly the only closing song I really liked as a closing song from Death Cab is The Ice Is Getting Thinner, even though I think they basically start every album perfectly.

 

For some reason I just have never liked it. I usually don't like when albums just end with an acoustic song. Haha It's really weird. I should revisit Transatlaticism again soon, I feel like I would connect with it now more with how my life currently is than when I got it. Maybe Lack of Color will finally connect too.

 

Openers:
Alkaline Trio - Cringe
Alkaline Trio - Keep 'Em Coming
Alkaline Trio - Private Eye
Alkaline Trio - Time To Waste
Alkaline Trio - Calling All Skeletons
Alkaline Trio - She Lied To The FBI
Brand New - Sowing Season
Deftones - Feiticeira
Deftones - Hexagram
Deftones - Swerve City
Every Time I Die - No Son of Mine
Every Time I Die - Underwater Bimbos from Outer Space
Foo Fighters - Stacked Actors
The Gaslight Anthem - Great Expectations
He Is Legend - Dicephalous
Jimmy Eat World - Bleed American
Jimmy Eat World - Futures
Jimmy Eat World - Big Casino
The Lawrence Arms - The Devil's Takin' Names
Motion City Soundtrack - Attractive Today
Motion City Soundtrack - Worker Bee
Nirvana - Serve the Servants
Queens of the Stone Age - You Think I Ain't Worth a Dollar, But I Feel Like A Millionaire
Thrice - Kill Me Quickly
Thrice - Cold Cash and Colder Hearts
Thrice - All the World is Mad
Weezer - My Name is Jonas
Weezer - Tired of Sex

 

Openers:
The National - Terrible Love
Motion City Soundtrack - Attractive Today, Worker Bee
Jimmy Eat World - Futures
The Helio Sequence - Harmonica Song, Lately
Third Eye Blind - Anything
Thrice - Yellow Belly

 

Classic Rock Openers:
U2 - Where The Streets Have No Name
Rolling Stones - Gimme Shelter
Led Zeppelin - Whole Lotta Love/Black Dog
Bob Dylan - Like A Rolling Stone

And tons of other bands

 

Anberlin - Debut/Godspeed, Self-Starter
Andrew Peterson - Come Back Soon
Bon Iver - Perth
Brand New - Sowing Season
Circa Survive - Strange Terrain
The Classic Crime - The End/Just a Man
Copeland - Should You Return
Eisley - Memories
Emery - Cutthroat Collapse
Falling Up - Circadian
From Indian Lakes - Come In This Light
House of Heroes - A Man Who Is Not Afraid/Out My Way
John Mayer - Clarity
Julien Baker - Blacktop
Levi the Poet - Harsh Men
Mae - Prologue/We're So Far Away
Manchester Orchestra - The Only One
Mew - New Terrain
mewithoutYou - Messes of Men
MuteMath - Odd Soul
My Epic - Arise
Nickel Creek - Smoothie Song, When In Rome
Oh, Sleeper - Endseekers
Paramore - Careful
Penny & Sparrow - Jeffrey Alan/Serial Doubter
Sufjan Stevens - All the Trees of the Field Will Clap Their Hands, Death With Dignity
Switchfoot - Meant to Live
twenty one pilots - Ode to Sleep
U2 - Where the Streets Have No Name
Underoath - In Regards to Myself